Spintronic Physics for Storage and Memory Using Magnetic Multilayers

J.C. Slonczewski
IBM RSM Emeritus, US

Keywords: magnetoresistance, magnetic multilayers, tunneling, spin transfer, storage, memory

Abstract:
Three kinds of magnetoresistance in nanoscopic magnetic multilayers serve to read bits stored in magnetized elements. They are called current-in-plane, current-perpendicular-to-plane, and tunneling. At the present time, moment reversal with torque exerted by a magnetic field serves exclusively to write the bits. However, in memory the increase of write current with decrease of lithographic scale is prohibitively large. For an element of size <100 nm and thickness ~2 nm, this torque provided by an externally sourced field will have to be replaced with the direct transfer of spin momentum provided by a spin-polarized current flowing through the element. This talk will survey the physics of nanoscopic electron transport for magnetoresistance and spin-momentum transfer.

Nanotech 2004 Conference Technical Program Abstract